{"id":716059,"date":"2026-04-22T18:39:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T18:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716059\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T18:39:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T18:39:19","slug":"with-a-wink-76ers-rookie-v-j-edgecombe-has-quickly-found-his-playoff-footing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/716059\/","title":{"rendered":"With a wink, 76ers rookie V.J. Edgecombe has quickly found his playoff footing"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2013 Paul George was in the middle of heaping praise on teammate and 76ers rookie V.J. Edgecombe\u2019s efforts<\/a> in Philadelphia\u2019s 111-97 Game 2 win over Boston, when he realized he wasn\u2019t even sure about something.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you 21 yet?\u201d George turned and asked Edgecombe on the dais<\/a> during their postgame news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, 20,\u201d Edgecombe responded with a smirk.<\/p>\n

Nobody\u2019s laughing about the elite company that the 76ers\u2019 third overall pick in last June\u2019s draft put himself into during just his second career playoff game<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just try not to overthink it,\u201d Edgecombe said. \u201cI try not to put pressure on myself. Everybody\u2019s already putting pressure on us to perform. … Plus, I\u2019m around a great group of guys. That also helps me. Just keep instilling confidence in me. Just to keep going, keep going. Regardless of who\u2019s on the floor, who\u2019s not on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edgecombe finished with 30 points and 10 rebounds to become the first rookie to record at least 30 points and 10 rebounds in a playoff game since Tim Duncan on May 5, 1998.<\/p>\n

He also became the first rookie in NBA<\/a> history to post five 3-pointers and 10 rebounds in a playoff game. It was a bounce-back performance after a Game 1 in which he finished with just 13 points on 6-of-16 shooting.<\/p>\n

George said it\u2019s the culmination of something they first saw glimpses of in the Bahamas native when Edgecombe scored 34 points in his first pro game in Philadelphia\u2019s one-point opening night win in Boston.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you think about it how he started his first NBA game in this building, I\u2019m sure he was in a small percentage or small group of players that what he did on that opening night,\u201d George said.<\/p>\n

Edgecombe\u2019s opening-night performance was the third-most points for an NBA player in his first game. Wilt Chamberlain scored 43 points in his debut in 1959 for the Philadelphia Warriors and also had 28 rebounds that night against New York. Frank Selvy scored 35 points for the Milwaukee Hawks against Boston in 1954.<\/p>\n

Allen Iverson held the Sixers\u2019 record with 30 points in his debut in 1996.<\/p>\n

Edgecombe\u2019s 14 first-quarter points on opening night were also the most ever for a player\u2019s first NBA quarter. That record had been set by LeBron James in 2003.<\/p>\n

Edgecombe finished the regular season averaging 16.0 points in 75 games.<\/p>\n

And he\u2019s done it with a flair that is in some ways reminiscent of the fun-loving style that Iverson exuded during his 76ers\u2019 tenure.<\/p>\n

In Tuesday\u2019s win, after knocking down his final basket of the night \u2014 a deep 3-pointer over Payton Pritchard to put Philadelphia in front 105-92 after Boston had gotten within 91-89 \u2014 Edgecombe winked at the camera<\/a> as he jogged back down the court.<\/p>\n

George said it\u2019s just a taste of what’s to come from Edgecombe.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo put a whole season together and get to a point where he\u2019s showcasing who he is and his abilities. I\u2019ve been saying all year long he\u2019s far past a rookie,\u201d George said. \u201cIt\u2019s just impressive, man. (Edgecombe had) 30 and 10, but it\u2019s just what we needed in the moments throughout the game when he took over, and kind of just put us at ease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday wasn\u2019t all fun for Edgecombe, though. He did take a hard fall on his back early in the game that resulted in him limping to the locker room in both the first and third quarters.<\/p>\n

But Edgecombe shrugged off any notion that his fall will hinder him going forward in this series.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just landed on my back, but I\u2019m good. I was able to finish the game so I\u2019m good,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s all I\u2019ve got for you. I\u2019m good, ain\u2019t nothing wrong with me. I\u2019m good.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2013 Paul George was in the middle of heaping praise on teammate and 76ers rookie V.J. Edgecombe\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":716060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6170,7,89276,185,6,526,405,66,1674,971],"class_list":{"0":"post-716059","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-allen-iverson","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-frank-selvy","11":"tag-lebron-james","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-paul-george","14":"tag-payton-pritchard","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-tim-duncan","17":"tag-vj-edgecombe"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116449821567072191","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=716059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/716059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/716060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=716059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=716059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=716059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}